The history of drama abounds in change, exchange, and paradox, but my present concern is a segment of contemporary theatre history. Shaw's quip still has point – that Britain and America are two countries separated by a common culture – but several dramatists of these countries also share a common theatre culture. Unlike interpersonal characters, dramatists speak each to each through their dramas, and, unlike the mermaids of Eliot's Prufrock, I think that they also speak to me, and, I hope, to you. This book records my impression of a transatlantic dramatists' exchange through the languages of the stage, mainly but not entirely expressed in words heard. Shifting my metaphor from the ear to the eye, I scrutinize plays of several American and English dramatists who offer mutual illumination through a double focus. I should say “double focuses,” since I discern different points of tangency within each Anglo–American pair.

The half-dozen playwright couples worried their way into my mind, in empirical response to theatre productions. Empiricism used to have right of domain in Anglophone culture, but Latinate theory is colonizing its ground. Ignoring theory, I grapple with living and lively dramatists who are skilled in the languages of the stage. Uneasy with superlatives, I do not claim that these “twins” are the most durable dramatists of our time – well, not all of them. Nor did I seek out those who are the most representative of their countries. All artists are nurtured by a specific time and place, and although I cite printed texts, I try to situate each play in the specific time and place of first performance.